The Jones Senior girls’ basketball team threw the first punch against Lejeune, going up 2-0 at the start of the game Friday night.

However, the Devilpups countered with their own arsenal with an 8-0 run, and never looked back in routing the Trojans 65-40 in both team’s Coastal Plains 1-A Conference opener.

Lejeune is now 10-0 overall while Jones Senior fell to 2-9 overall.

“We knew that we were going to have to play tough against them (Jones) because even though they are young, they are athletic,” Lejeune first-year coach Ken Popadines said. “I’m proud of what we did tonight, especially from the long layover from Christmas break. It is nice to be able to pick up right from where you left off.”

Later, the Lejeune boys were not as lucky, losing to Jones Senior 97-81.

For the Lejeune girls, guard Chatori Major led all scorers with 34 points while teammate Chryssandia Tatum added 11.

Jones Senior kept the game close at 16-9 after the first quarter as both teams were jumping in passing lanes and forcing turnovers.

The Devilpups then turned up their intensity. They used a 24-point second quarter to build a 20-point lead going into halftime. Jones Senior confused the Devilpups with a box-and-one defense against Major, but couldn’t convert anything on the offensive side.

“I think inexperience showed on our behalf tonight,” Jones Senior coach Debbie Philyaw said. “We are reloading as a group and having to play a lot of freshmen. Lejeune has a few key players that have been around and know each other well and it showed on the court tonight.”

A freshman that did the most damage tonight for the Trojans was Franlenu Brimmage, who led the team with 20 points. No other Trojan scored in double digits.

After going into halftime with a 40-20 cushion, the Devilpups proceeded to put their foot on the gas and pushed their lead to 30 with an impressive full-court press, patience on offense, and unselfishness throughout the game.

“Everyone is a year older now and has been around the game together for a long time,” Popadines added. “Our starters who were freshmen last year have grown up and when teams want to try and shut down Chatori, we have other people that can step up and play big roles in situations like that.”

Lejeune led 58-29 after three quarters and moved to a four-corner offense to help run down the clock. Jones Senior eventually would cut its deficit down to 15 but by then it was too late.

Boys

Jones Senior 97 Lejeune 81

There aren’t many nights where you see a basketball player score fourty or more points and their team still ends up with the loss.

Lejeune fans got to witness that as the Devilpups’ Ryan Evans scored 42 points, doing most of his damage in a fourth-quarter comeback attempt.

However, Lejeune came up short and lost its CPC opener to Jones Senior, which was led by K.D. McCall’s 28 points and Eric Dudley’s 23 points.

“It’s bittersweet and hard not to celebrate a young man’s performance like the one he (Evans) had tonight,” Lejeune coach Joey Malott said. “I’ve told my team that we are way better than what our record shows. At times we are clicking on all cylinders, but we have to play that way for the whole 32 minutes.”

Jones Senior outscored Lejeune 25-12 in the third quarter, but other than that quarter, the game was neck and neck.

“I told my team that even though we have only won one game, its conference now and everyone is 0-0,” Evans said. “We are going to take this game, learn from it, and continue to work hard every day.”

Jones Senior had four players in double digits and three of them scored 20 points or more.